A short walk to a park? San Diego hasn't yet committed to national goal

Peggy Peattie

Philicia Harris, 30, who plays flag football to stay fit, went through a two-hour work out with teammates in Balboa Park. Their team is a co-ed mix that will play their first competitive game against other co-ed teams beginning in March.

Philicia Harris, 30, who plays flag football to stay fit, went through a two-hour work out with teammates in Balboa Park. Their team is a co-ed mix that will play their first competitive game against other co-ed teams beginning in March. (Peggy Peattie)

Nearly 150 mayors have signed on to a pledge to make parks within easy access of every city resident.

But in San Diego County, only Encinitas has accepted the goal set out last fall by the National Recreation and Park Association.

The group's president and CEO, Barbara Tulipane, was in San Diego earlier this week speaking to a health conference, and stopped by Balboa Park to talk up her priorities with officials and park supporters after noting parks have not yet recovered from the recession-era spending cuts of a decade ago.

“The idea is that everybody should be able to walk to a great park within 10 minutes,” she said on Monday.

Her organization’s website includes photos of mayors who have signed on to revising their community and general plans, park master plans and budgeting for more and better parks.

“I understand San Diego is not one of those mayors,” she said, “and Herman and Rick, we need to make sure we get him onboard.”

She was referring to two of her board members from San Diego, city parks director, Herman Parker, and Rick Gulley, a former board chairman and president of the San Diego Zoo.

The Trust for Public Land’s most recent ranking showed that that 77 percent of San Diego city residents live within a 10-minute walk from a park. The only other city in San Diego County ranked was Chula Vista at 54 percent, the same percentage for Los Angeles.

San Francisco was only the city where 100 percent of residents lived within a 10-minute walk. Other high-scorers were Arlington, Va., a Washington, D.C. suburb, and Boston at 98 percent. Eleven other cities had percentages from 90 to 97 percent. [Note: These figures were updated from the original posting.]

Mayor Kevin Faulconer has already pledged to build or improve 50 parks over the next five years, said spokeswoman Christina Chadwick, and more than half are open or under construction already. In addition the city and the San Diego Unified School District are working to make more playgrounds and joint-use fields open to the public. A third initiative is turning the now-closed De Anza Cove mobile home park into a 76-acre park on Mission Bay.

“Before deciding to sign on to another park pledge, the mayor wants to hear from San Diegans about what they want in future parks as the city develops a new master plan for its parks system for the first time in more than 60 years,” she said.

The AECOM consulting firm has been hired to prepare the plan and a survey is set to go out to residents this month to seek their suggestions.

Roger Showley/U-T

Barbara Tulipane, center talks to attendees at a San Diego Zoo reception for park leaders.

Tulipane touched on the need for more public support for parks, not only in donations but in city spending. She said companies make locational decisions partly on the basis of amenities their workers can enjoy in the selected community.

“Everybody’s talking about Amazon and cities vying for that business,” she said, alluding to the company’s current search for a second headquarters — a competition that San Diego lost last month in the first cut. “Guess what Amazon’s top three criteria were — they want to attract talent and talent wants to go where there are recreational opportunities and open space. If parks aren’t important, I give up. You have a huge corporation that recognizes that and wants to have that kind of livability.”

She said only one-third of Americans live within a 10-minute walk or half-mile from a park and those who don’t often are the underserved “who need it the most.”

“Even if you don't care about anything else, this would reduce the national debt,” she said, since many health costs could be avoided if more Americans had access to parks and did not develop obesity problems.

In welcoming Tulipane to San Diego, Doug Myers, president and CEO of San Diego Zoo Global, said parks, zoos and museums should band together nationally to move their cause up the national agenda. He pledged to do his part to work together with park institutions and organizations.

“We are a quiet giant and I think if we get together, united, we can awaken that giant,” he said. “I welcome you to the San Diego Zoo. More importantly, I welcome you to the San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park. That’s the way we should sell this.”

Tulipane’s organization is offering $40,000 grants to about 35 cities over the next three years to help plan their implementation of the 10-minute-walk strategy. It has previously given San Diego city $158,700 grants in the last eight years, most for summer lunch programs at various parks, city officials said.

ParkScore: Trust for Public Land rankings, 2017

Percentage of city population living within a 10-minute walk of a park

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